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Going outside the box to create a classroom experience unlike any other!

Contractions and Comics

We’ve been learning how to write contractions in our language arts word study time. I showed the kids how contractions work both in English and Spanish. After making a list of contractions in both languages, we compared the kinds of contractions by the rules the contractions follow in both languages. The kids noticed that, in English, contractions always use an apostrophe where the missing letter is. In Spanish, however, this is not always true. There are certain colloquialisms that do use an apostrophe when two words are put together to form a contraction, such as the words “M’ija” (mi + hija) and “pa’ que” (para + que). However there are other words that lose a letter when they make a contraction but they don’t use an apostrophe, such as “al” (a + el) and “del” (de + el). Then there are also several words that GAIN letters when they are put together, like “con” and “mi” go together to form “conmigo”. It was really interesting to watch the kids make these comparisons.

After practicing contractions for a few days, I introduced the kids to a free app for iPod touches, iPhones, and iPads. It’s called “toonthat”. It’s an app that let’s you take pictures of things and then add talking bubbles or thought bubbles and other special effects to create a comic. It’s very easy to use. The first day, we just practiced using the app and learning how to make comics. The next day, I added a requirement that their comics had to use contractions. They loved the idea!

Their comics turned out great and every day they beg me to let them make more contraction comics during their free time! They share them with their friends and make each other laugh. Some of them take pictures of each other. Others use stuffed animals as the comic characters. Still others make scenes from Legos and Playmobils and use the figures from both as the characters.

When I was introducing the app to the kids we talked about making sure to ask someone’s permission before taking a picture of them, and then make sure the comic is approved by them before showing it to anyone else. We talked about appropriate school language and what it means to be “funny at the expense of someone else”. I told them it’s much safer to use stuffed animals or toys as the characters because then you don’t have to worry as much about hurting someone’s feelings. I also shared a bunch of comics that I’ve made using my puppies and Legos as the characters.